A Christmas Shirt

Unfortunately I did not finish my shirt in time for last Sunday however I had a good time on that day.  I ended up catching up with a relative for lunch after I finished volunteering and we had a nice lunch together before I did some more shopping.  During the week following I managed to complete the shirt and it is shown below.

Other than the buttonholes I sewed the entire thing on the Vesta with seam finishing by the overlocker as I find that to be the most effective with garments like shirts that I wear a lot.

I cut a self facing 6cm wide with the sleeves and turned it up and top stitched, I'm quite happy with the results.

I chose light green buttons as they were the best match I could find.  The collar turned out much better than I expected it to, even though I try hard my collars are a little hit and miss.

The buttonholes were stitched on the Singer 306.  There is no buttonhole setting you have to manually adjust the width and direction but if you have the patience and nerves it makes a lovely buttonhole.

In other news I brought this lovely ring home from work today, I'm considering buying it as I really like it.  It is German, Sterling Silver and marcasite apparently.

A Vested Interest

The Vesta is finally finished.  It is nicely clean, although not perfect and it sews, which is good!  I do not have a leather belt to treadle it with but we fashioned a belt out of rope and it seems to work.  The stitch is decent and the machine even reverses!  Some more pictures from the process below.

The tension assembly in pieces before cleaning.

The tension assembly in pieces after cleaning.

The snake skin patterning was difficult to clean as I was paranoid about scratching the chrome.  I ended up coating them in oil and then carefully cleaning the grooves out with a machine needle, rather time consuming.

Back cover after cleaning.

Faceplate before cleaning.

When the back cover was removed, all the workings in that end of the machine could be seen, I could have spent forever watching them!

Under back cover.

Before I went to the extreme lengths of tidying off the Vesta's table I wanted to check the machine actually stitched, so here is a picture of it all threaded up and ready to go.  The thumbscrew holding the faceplate on is one borrowed from a tucking foot and the only one I could find that would thread into the required hole.

Not a very good photograph, I know!

The machine did indeed come with accessories, however I am not sure how many are original as there are no markings on any except for the ruffler which is labelled 'Singer' so is clearly not original!

Accessories and the piece of paper it came with.

I'm not sure what the piece at the top roght is off, I think maybe a ruffler again but I'm not sure, however the others are as follows:
Middle row (from L to R): Binding foot, two thumbscrews, the lower one is not original and does not fit the machine, the upper one is to secure the machine to the table and finally top foot is standard straight stitch foot and the bottom foot is a rolled hemmer.
Bottom row (from L to R): Hemming foot and Tucking foot

Next on the agenda is a Christmas shirt to wear on Sunday, I think I may be pushing it a little but who knows?

Vesta Sewing Machine

Just over a year ago  I (stupidly) bought a machine from a local scrapyard.  It came in a treadle table ("Where are you going to put THAT?" asked Mother) and the head is in very bad condition, cosmetically anyway.  I suspect someone tried to 'clean' it and stuffed up.  Badly.  There are no unharmed decals left on it, just a few shadows in a few places and there are actually scrub marks on the arm.  The pillar paint has been damaged by something and is very rough and a funny colour.  However the table itself was in fair condition and it was complete and I think it came with accessories, they are still in the table and I cannot easily access it to check as it is sandwiched in between two other tables.  The machine is a Vesta, a German made machine.  It has an oscillating shuttle and a very interesting thread holder, which was the whole reason I bought it, would you believe, $170 for a thread holder, mad I know.

Inscribed on the back plate

From the front, see the thread holder?

 As well as having no decals to speak of this machine is filthy, I think it's dirt and grease that has solidified.  Whatever it is, it is most difficult to remove.  Most of the time I just use some cheap(er) oil and some steel wool but that was not shifting anything.  On some of the mechanical parts that were not nicely chromed and on thumbscrew grips I used a brass brush and followed up with steel wool but I found that my best friend ever was an old sewing machine needle.  If I was careful I could scrape the dirt off and not scratch the surface,  This was particularly useful on the snakeskin patterning on the little cover plates.  And, by the way, I do have the faceplate I just do not have a screw to attach it.

Incredibly the machine is not seized although it is very dry, however the back shuttle cover plate and the handwheel absolutely refused to move.  Brute force removed both of them though, allowing me better access to clean.  I do not think that most of the screws in this machine have ever been removed and they are almost all impossibly tight so I have to clean everything without unscrewing it, which greatly limits my access.  Anyway here are a few photographs:

Cleaning around the feet using my machine needle.

From underneath before cleaning

Stitch length adjusts this part.  Before cleaning.

Shuttle area before cleaning.

Before cleaning.

Under the throat plate when it was first removed.

After the removal of both shuttle covers.

The shuttle area after extensive cleaning.

It is also the anniversary of the passing of one of my favourite singers today, John Lennon.  I was reading some quotes by him today, I never knew he had so many well known ones!

Brief Catching Up

I have finished my red dress and I wore it to the awards ceremony today.  I was still finishing it this morning though and I am not really very happy with the hem.  Hopefully I will have some photos of it completed tomorrow.

I also couldn't miss two important birthdays from today and yesterday!

Yesterday's birthday was Andy Williams and today's was Deanna Durbin, both favourites of mine.  Should be more coming tomorrow!

Zips and Linings

Finally my red dress is coming together.  Due to the material being very slippery there is a marked difference in the length of the bodice front and the lining front.  Unfortunately I did not realise this until after I had stitched the lining down on the inside.  The result was not overly pleasing.  Today I unpicked the stitching holding the lining down and the waistline seam and adjusted the fit.  Although rather time consuming I am much happier with it now.  I also stitched the press studs on the yoke and hand stitched the zip in.  Pictures below.

Zip pinned to dress from wrong side

The zip stitched in from the right side, the gathers are meant to be there!

The lining stitched over the zip tape on the wrong side.

Press studs on left yoke.

 I have been debating for a while which earrings to wear with this dress and I think I have settled for the earrings below, which I have borrowed from my Mother.

Tomorrow I will be tackling the hem on the dress.  I will also be working and going out to dinner so I may not get to post.  I will not post pictures of the finished dress until Thursday, as I will then be wearing and someone might remember to take some photos!

I noted with interest that Winston Churchill's birthday is today, along with Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift, what is it about authors birthdays and today???

Second-hand Retro Dresses

Yesterday I mentioned that I had acquired two genuine vintage dresses from work.  Bright and early this morning I washed them and hung them out to dry as the weather was delightfully warm.  My red dress has not gone well today so I am not going  to show pictures of it, instead I will show pictures of these dresses.  My favourite of the two dresses is the blue one and I think it may fit me, however I do not think the green one will, unless I put on a lot of weight!

The green one is made from a very nasty feeling knit of some kind.  It is a princess seam and I really like the neckline.

From the front

Waist detail

Neck detail

The second is a beautiful full skirted dress with a muslin skirt lining.  It has a particularly delightful shoulder detail and a lovely belt attached.  This dress needs lots of work on it though and most of the seams are fraying.  I think it may fit me as it is too small for our smallest mannequin.

Front of dress

Shoulder detail

Belt buckle.  Belt buckles at back.

Front of the belt.

Metal toothed zip.  The dress zips up the back.

The observant among you may have noted the second, apron-wearing, mannequin in the background.  This apron is a project in progress and is one of the five (!) I have made for Christmas.

Hopefully I will be more in the mood to post about my red dress again tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Skirting The Issue!

As predicted today was extremely hectic and I spent most of it at work and then walked the dog when  I got home.  Today was dedicated to assembly and attaching the skirt and skirt lining to the dress.  Pictures follow.

The corner on the skirt front seam, refer to envelope picture for a better idea!

Pinning the skirt and skirt lining together for basting.

The assemble skirt with lining basted inside.

Here the skirt is sewn to the outer bodice.  

Once the zip is in (next step) the inner bodice will be sewn over the waistline seam.  I am really hoping to have this thing finished tomorrow.

In other news I picked up two vintage handmade dresses from work today, both in my size (I hope).  More to follow!

A Day of Sleeves

I think I can honestly say that it took me as long to complete the sleeves and their eventual attachment to the bodice as it took to assemble the bodice.  The fact that I worked all afternoon and overslept probably did not help my perception.

With this dress, the capped sleeves are self lined, so you effectively cut four sleeves (prepares one for making a dog dress, I suppose), only two of them act as a lining to the other two.  The sleeves are eased and seamed together at the bottom.  You stitch the outer sleeve to the armhole in the dress, easing in fullness, then slipstitch the lining sleeve over the seam on the inside, if that makes any sense.  My sleeves were not all that cooperative but I am fairly pleased with the result.  Photographs of the procedure follow:

Completed sleeve, before attaching to bodice.

The sleeve lining pinned over the sleeve seam on the inside.

The bodice completed with sleeves attached.

Close up of yoke and overlap on left hand side of bodice.

Hopefully I will have the skirt attached by this time tomorrow, however I do not like my chances as I have been called into work early to cover for someone who is sick.

Today is November the 26th and it is apparently Tina Turner's birthday, my absolute favourite song of hers is 'Simply the Best'.

I also love the dress she is wearing in the picture above!